Conventional Origins of Protocols

Where will the required protocols come from? Traditionally, industry-wide protocols have their origins in one of two sources:

1. The major players in the industry itself. In the case of wireless communications, this means the major telecommunications and wireless network companies.
2. Professional protocol and standards producing associations. In the case of wireless communications, this means the IETF, ITU, ISO, ANSI, TIA and others.

Unfortunately, neither of these groups has produced a set of protocols which meets the industry's needs. The first group above, represented by a set of telephone companies, has generated the WAP specification. However, as we will argue in detail later, this specification is grossy unfit for its claimed purpose. Among other things it is poorly designed, not the product of open peer review, and crippled with Intellectual Property Right (IPR) restrictions. It is essentially a business construct, not an engineering one. In the long run WAP cannot possibly survive as a viable solution. In the short run it can only have a destructive effect on the wireless industry.

The second group above, most notably represented by IETF, has likewise failed to produce an acceptable standard. IETF represents the tradition of simple protocols, a tradition which wireless communications has made obsolete. Unfortunately, IETF remains rooted in this tradition, and has not adapted to the new realities of wireless communications. Until it does so, IETF will remain ineffective as a protocols and standards body. In the area of efficient protocols, IETF is simply bankrupt.